In eternity past, the unique Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, existed by Himself. Gen. 1:26 reveals that God came in to create man in His image. Although man was created in the image of God, at the time of creation, man did not have the life of God in him. As we read through the entire Bible from Gen. 1 to Rev. 22, we see that after many dispensations, generations, and centuries have passed, God will still be there in eternity future. However, He will no longer be by Himself. Although He will still be the Triune God, pictured in 22:1 as God, the Lamb, and the flowing river (the symbol of the Spirit), at that time He will be the center of the New Jerusalem. In eternity past, God was by Himself, but in eternity future, the Triune God will be the center of the New Jerusalem and will saturate the whole city. The portrait of the New Jerusalem in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two is a sign signifying that God will be mingled with His redeemed people as His enlargement. Eventually, this people will be a building. This building, constituted with divinity and humanity, will be a mutual habitation of both God and man. This is the transparent revelation of the Holy Bible.
This revelation includes three main items: the unique God, the created man, and the builded New Jerusalem. These three items cover the whole Bible. When God comes into man, regenerates him, and transforms him, He mingles Himself with man. By mingling Himself with man, God becomes enlarged. The issue of this mingling is the building, the New Jerusalem. Thus, the New Jerusalem as God’s building is the mingling of God with the created, redeemed, and regenerated man. We all need to have a vision of this marvelous building.
Recently, a brother testified that since the time he was saved, he has undergone many changes. For a while he would be happy, and then there would be a change. At one point he thought he had come into the victorious life, but then things changed once again. But consider how many changes there have been and will be from the time of Adam until the time of the New Jerusalem. The reason you have experienced so many changes is that you have not yet been brought into God’s unchanging building. Until we all have been brought into God’s building, we all shall continue to change. Only after we have come into His building will there be no further change. Revelation 3:12 says, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore.” This indicates that only after we have been built into the temple of God shall we cease to change. In the meantime, the more we change, the closer we are to the building. Our eternal destiny is to be in God’s building. However, among most Christians today there is no building. Instead, there is continual wandering and shifting.
In the book of Genesis there are eight important men: Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Eventually, these eight men issued in God’s building. In the Old Testament this building was typified by the tabernacle and the temple. In the New Testament we have the reality of the building. Jesus is the tabernacle (John 1:14, Gk.), the church is the temple (1 Cor. 3:16), and the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation. Altogether there are thirteen items: the eight men in Genesis, the tabernacle and the temple in type, Jesus and the church in reality, and the New Jerusalem.
The lampstand was a very crucial item in the tabernacle because it directed people to the ark in the Holy of Holies. Consider the arrangement of the furnishings in the tabernacle and the outer court. Firstly, in the outer court there were the altar and the laver. Then, in the Holy Place, there were the showbread table and the lampstand with seven lamps. The lampstand directed people into the Holy of Holies; it pointed the way to the law of life in the ark of testimony.
If we had only the book of Exodus, we would not be able to understand the significance of the lampstand and its seven lamps. But in Zechariah 3 and 4 the lampstand with its lamps appears again as a development of the lampstand in Exodus 25. In Zechariah 3:9 we have the seven eyes on the stone, and in 4:10 we see that these seven eyes are the eyes of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth.” When we put Zechariah 4:10 with Zechariah 4:2, we see that the seven lamps of the lampstand are also the seven eyes of the Lord. Thus, in Zechariah the seven lamps in Exodus are developed into the seven eyes of Jehovah, the Lord. Furthermore, these seven lamps are the seven eyes of the stone. Therefore, in Zechariah the seven lamps are developed into seven eyes, and the lampstand is developed into the stone and into Jehovah, the Lord. Hence, the seven lamps are the seven eyes, and the lampstand is the stone, Jehovah, the Lord. Here we have not only the seven lamps, but also the seven eyes; not only the lampstand, but also the stone, Jehovah. This implies that the seven lamps are the seven eyes and that the lampstand is Jehovah.
As we have pointed out a number of times, the matter of the stone is developed in the New Testament. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” Here the Lord refers to Himself as the rock. In Matthew 21:42 He said, “Have you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone; this was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” The stone referred to here is the very stone with the seven eyes in Zechariah 3:9. Peter spoke of the Lord as this stone in Acts 4:11, where he said, “This is the stone which was despised by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” Peter was telling the religionists that they rejected not only their Redeemer, but also the cornerstone of God’s building.
In Revelation 4 and 5 we have a further development of the seven lamps. According to 4:5, the seven lamps of the lampstand are seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God. The seven lamps on the lampstand were for enlightening, but the seven lamps before the throne of God are both for enlightening and for the carrying out of God’s administrative government. Revelation 5:6 indicates that the seven lamps burning before the throne are also the seven eyes of the Lamb. Thus, the seven eyes are the seven eyes of the stone, the seven eyes of the Lord, and the seven eyes of the Lamb. These seven eyes combine the stone, the Lord, and the Lamb. This indicates that the Lamb is the stone and that the stone is the Lord. Moreover, 5:6 reveals that the seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. On the one hand, there is a line containing six items: the lampstand, the stone, Jehovah, the Lamb, the throne of God, and God. On the other hand, there is another line with three items: the seven lamps, the seven eyes, and the seven Spirits. The lampstand signifies shining, and the stone refers to God’s building. Jesus, our Savior, is Jehovah, and the Redeemer is the Lamb. The throne of God indicates God’s government, God’s administration.
The lamps are for enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. All this is for the carrying out of God’s administration. Today, God is administering His government by means of enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. Anything that does not correspond to God’s nature will be burned by His fire. Although we have been saved and have undergone some amount of transformation, our work will be burned if it is wood, hay, and stubble and not gold, silver, and precious stone (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Any fleshly work, work done in the name of the Lord but actually having nothing to do with Him, will be burned. Everything that is not of God or according to God, whether it be a so-called church, a Christian work, or even gospel preaching, will be counted by God as wood, hay, and stubble, and it will be burned by fire. This burning is the carrying out of God’s administration. The Bible reveals that God is the burning One (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). All things outside of Him or that do not correspond to His nature will be burned.
Although the seven enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning lamps will burn all that does not correspond to God, they will refine those things that are truly according to His nature. Instead of being burned away, those things will be refined. The dross will go to the lake of fire, but the refined gold will go to the New Jerusalem.
We may be able to hide things from one another, but when the seven lamps shine on us, we are utterly naked and exposed. Then it is no longer possible to hide or cover ourselves. All that we are, do, say, and think is exposed, judged, and burned. If your talk corresponds to God’s nature, it will be refined gold. If not, it will be dross. This is the experience of the seven lamps.
The seven lamps are simultaneously the seven eyes of the Lamb and the stone. The lamps are for enlightening and burning; the eyes are both for watching and observing and also for infusing and transfusing. The seven eyes transfuse all that the Lamb-stone is into our being so that we might be made the same as He. First Peter 2:4 and 5 say, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (Gk.). The way for us to become living stones is to come to Him and to be seen by Him. As the Lord enlightens and judges us, He looks at us, and His seven eyes transfuse Himself into us. In this way we are transformed.
If we were not saved, it would be a dreadful experience to be enlightened in this way by the Lord’s seven lamps. But, as saved ones, it is wonderful to be enlightened in this way. However, if our work and our living are fleshly, not in the spirit, but according to the self, it would be terrifying to be enlightened by the seven lamps, for our living and our work would be exposed and burned by fire. But if we live in the spirit and according to God’s nature, the more the seven lamps enlighten us and the more the Lord looks at us, the more we shall be transfused and infused with all He is. This is confirmed by our experience.
When the seven eyes look at us, transfusing and infusing us with all the Lord is, the seven eyes immediately become the seven Spirits imparting life into us. As the eyes infuse us, the seven Spirits impart life into our whole being. Therefore, the lamps are for enlightening and judging, the eyes are for transfusing and infusing, and the Spirits are for imparting life so that we may be transformed into His image. The more we experience this, the more we are built up together. For this reason, the book of Revelation, which covers God’s building in an ultimate way, includes these two chapters unveiling that God’s building is accomplished through the seven lamps, the seven eyes, and the seven Spirits. We all need to be under the enlightening of the seven lamps, under the beholding of the seven eyes, and under the imparting of life of the seven Spirits. In these days many of us are under the seven lamps, the seven eyes, and the seven Spirits. Praise the Lord for this! I can testify that day by day I am being exposed. Is this not your experience also? But we are also being transfused. I can testify that every day something of the Lord is transfused into me. The issue of this is more growth in life. Do not think that only the young people are growing in life. Although I am an older one, I am still growing because I am daily receiving more life through the life-imparting work of the seven Spirits.
Eventually, the seven lamps before the throne become the river of life proceeding out of the throne. In chapter four we have the seven lamps burning before the throne of God, and in chapter twenty-two we have the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God. Thus, the seven lamps become one river. According to our experience, the seven Spirits of God are firstly the seven burning lamps. After we receive the burning of the seven lamps, the seven Spirits become one flow. In chapter four we do not yet have the New Jerusalem, for with only the seven lamps there is no building. However, when we see the river proceeding out of the throne to replace the seven lamps, we know that the building has also come. Perhaps yesterday you were under the enlightening and the burning of the seven lamps. But this morning you are in the flow of the water of life. With only the lamps, there was no building; but with the flow, there is the New Jerusalem. When we are in the flow, we are a part of God’s building.
According to the book of Revelation, the seven Spirits of God are firstly the lamps burning before God’s administrative throne. Eventually, in God’s building, these seven Spirits of God become the river of water of life proceeding from the throne. Now this throne is not only the administrative throne, but also the supplying throne. In this way we have the building. The more we are enlightened and receive the burning, the more we are in the flow of life, and the more we are in the flow of life, the more we are built up. This is the way to experience the building. Praise the Lord!
